132 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel

vivid glimpse of the heavenly King, who is known to all as the omnipotent God who has proved ‘mighty in battle’,’

pausing to slake His thirst ere He pursues afresh His work of slaughter and retribution.2

The Lord hath smitten away at thy right hand, Judging3 kings in the day of His anger.

He hath taken His fill of corpses among the nations;4 He hath crushed heads5 o’er all the wide earth.

He would drink from a stream on His way,6 Thus holding His Head on high!

In conclusion we are now in a position to appreciate the original significance of Psalm xxi, for this in turn gains in coherence when studied against the foregoing background of ritual and mythology. It opens with an emphasis upon the fact that the king is able to rejoice in an affirmative re- sponse to his plea for ‘life’ (D’?J). Through some great act of ‘victory’ or ‘salvation’ (iI?!@) on the part of Yahweh, which is not further defined but now stands revealed, this has been vouchsfed to him; and it is described in glowing terms as ‘length of days for ever and ever’. What is more, this assurance of answered prayer with its issue in the king’s coronation or enthronement is the outcome of a true cove- nant relationship, whereby the king’s trust ($X23) in Yahweh is matched by a signal act of devotion (780) from Yahweh’s side; and it is all of a piece with the liturgical setting which is here proposed for our psalm that Yahweh, who has already figured so prominently as the ‘Most High’, is again refered to at this point by means of this particular appellation.7

The king is glad, 0 Yahweh, by reason of Thy might;

How greatly doth he rejoice because of Thy victoryls

* Cf. Ps. xxiv. 8, as above, p. 73. = vv. 5-7.

3 Construing the first word of verse 6 with verse 5 on the ground of both

metre and sense. 4 Cf. Exod. xv. 9.

5 Cf. the language of Ps. Ixviii. ²² (EW. ^21), as above, p. 82, and that of Hab. iii. 13.

6 The Hebrew corresponds exactly to the French ‘en route’!

7 w. 2-8 (EW. 1 - 7 ) . 8 EW. ‘salvation’. Cf. again p. 102,

n.

2.

Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel ₌₃₃

Thou hast granted him the desire of his heart;

Thou hast not withheld the request of his lips.

For Thou meetest him with goodly blessings;

Thou settest a crown of gold upon his head.

Life, which he asked of Thee, Thou hast given him, Length of days for ever and ever.

His glory is great by reason of Thy victory;’

Honour and majesty Thou dost bestow upon him.

Yea, Thou makest him an everlasting blessing;

Thou bringest him joy and gladness with Thy presence.

For the king trusteth @Pi) in Yahweh,

And in the unshakeable2 devotion (t!~) of the Most High.

In the second half of the psalm we meet with the exul- tant thought that the future may be faced with confidence by Yahweh’s followers, for the dramatic victory which they have been celebrating is an earnest of that which is to come.

In short, it offers the assurance that in due course Yahweh will indeed root out those who have been planning mis- chief against Him and, by implication, His Messiah; and, in keeping with our earlier study of the triumph of the heavenly King,3 He is finally urged to arise that He may bring to pass this final act of judgement upon those who have sought to oppose His will.4

Thy Hand will reach out to all Thine enemies;

Thy Right Hand will find out those who hate Thee.

Thou wilt make them like a blazing oven In Thine own good time,5 Yahweh.

In His anger He will swallow them up;

Fire will devour them.6

Thou wilt destroy their fruit from the earth, And their seed from amongst mankind.

I

EW. ‘salvation’. Cf. again p. 102, n. 2.

2 i.e. construing tiinl’52 as a relative clause.

3 See above, pp. 98 ff. 4 w. ^g-14 (EW. 8 - 1 3 ) . 5 Cf. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel, p. 46,

n.

3, 2nd edit., p. 44,

n.

3.

6 It is tempting to omit this line as a gloss on the ground that it is compara- tively short and introduces a reference to Yahweh in the 3rd person rather than a direct address. Cf., for example, Kittel, op. cit., in lot. On the other hand, however, its omission would destroy the balance of the two halves of

‘34 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel Because they intended evil against Thee,

They planned mischief which they could not effect, Thou wilt surely make them turn to flight,

When Thou dost aim at them with Thy bowstrings.

Rise up, 0 Yahweh, in Thy strength,

That we may sing the praises of Thy might!

All in all, therefore, enough has been said to prove the literally vital part played by the Messiah of the House of David in the ritual and mythology of the Jerusalem cultus during the period of the Israelite monarchy; and, sum- marizing our conclusions once again, we may now say that the following features are to be recognized in the festival under discussion as celebrated in Solomon’s Temple be- tween the tenth and sixth centuries

^B.C.

In the first place we have (a) the celebration of Yahweh’s original triumph, as leader of the forces of light, over the forces of darkness as represented by the monstrous chaos of waters or primeval ocean; (b) His subjection of this cosmic sea and His en- thronement as King in the assembly of the gods; and (c) the further demonstration of His might and power in the creation of the habitable world. Cosmogony, however, gives place to eschatology; for all this is the prelude to the thought of His re-creative work, which is expressed in the form of a ritual drama, and, as such, is wholly in line with what we are told about prophetic symbolism of the type which appears to have been embraced by the term ?@. In fact it is the >qQ par excellence, and is designed as an effec- tive demonstration of Yahweh’s ultimate will and purpose for Israel and the world. In this ritual drama the worshippers are given (a) an assurance of final victory over ‘Death’, i.e. all that obstructs the fullness of life for mankind which was Yahweh’s design in the creation of the habitable world;

(b) a summons to a renewal of their faith in Yahweh and His plans for them and for the world; and (c) a challenge to a renewed endeavour to be faithful to Him and His de- mands, so that the day may indeed dawn when this vision

the poem, and there is a similar reference to Yahweh rather

than a direct

address in verse 8 (EW. 7).

Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel “35 of a universal realm of righteousness and peace will be realized, and His Kingdom will be seen in all its power and glory. Moreover, the summons and the challenge are directed first and foremost towards the ruling member of the House of David, in whom rest the hopes of Yahweh and His people; for we now know that, humanly speaking, the leading actor in this drama is the Davidic king, in whom the life of the nation as a corporate whole finds its focus. This work of ‘salvation’ (a$7!W), as it is called, is portrayed by means of some kind of mime in which the kings (i.e. nations) of the earth, representing the forces of darkness and

‘Death’ as opposed to light and ‘Life’ and commonly de- signated the ‘wicked’ (a’v$y), unite in an attempt to overthrow Yahweh’s covenanted followers, i.e. His ‘vota- ries’ (B’t’QQ) or the ‘righteous’ (iF?‘Ts), under the leadership of the Messiah. The latter, who is also described as the Servant of Yahweh,1 suffers an initial humiliation;

but this issues in his salvation and that of his people, for it involves the recognition of an ultimate dependence upon Yahweh rather than ‘the arm of flesh’, and thus sets the seal upon the basic plea of ‘fidelity’ (ngg), ‘devotion’ (@TQo), and ‘righteousness’ (p7.3) on the part of the Messiah and his subjects.2 As a rest&victory (or salvation) is eventually secured through the dramatic intervention of Yahweh Him- self in the person of the ‘Most High’, who makes His presence felt at dawn on this fateful day, and delivers the Messiah and ZIpso facto the nation from the forces of darkness and

‘Death’. In this way Yahweh reveals His own ‘fidelity’ @BE),

I For the setting of this conception in a wider context, see the valuable study by C. Lindhagen, The Servant Motif in the Old Testament (1950).

2 A consideration of the possibility that the conception of the Suffering Servant in the work of Deutero-Isaiah may have some connexion with that of the Davidic Messiah lies outside the scope of the present study; but the writer hopes to return to the question in another monograph in this series.

Meantime the reader may be referred to the careful survey of recent work in this field by H. H. Rowley, ‘The Suffering Servant and the Davidic Messiah’, O.T.S. viii (1950), pp. 100-36, reprinted in The Servant of the Lord and other Essays on the Old Testament (1952), pp. 59-88, and now, with an up-to-date bibliography, ibid., 2nd edit. rev. (1965), pp. 61-93.

1

136 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel

‘devotion’ (tvc), and ‘righteousness’ (i?T$) in relation to His covenant people. Further, this--deliverance from ‘Death’

marks the renewal of life or the rebirth of the king in ques- tion. It is the sign that in virtue of his faithfulness and basically by reason of his faith this suffering Servant and humble Messiah has been adopted as ‘Son’ of Yahweh or, to express this mediatory office in another way, has become an everlasting Priest ‘after the order of Melchizedek’; and, as such, he is enthroned on Mount Zion as Yahweh’s un- mistakable vicegerent upon earth. This is not all, however, for Yahweh’s earthly victory has its counterpart in the heavenly places. The rebellion of the kings of the earth is but a reflection of the rebellious misrule of the lesser gods in the divine assembly, to whom the ‘Most High’ had granted the jurisdiction over those territories which were occupied by the other nations of the earth. Accordingly the over- throw of the kings of the earth corresponds to the over- throw of these rebellious gods, who, having shown their unfitness to rule, are condemned to die like any earthly princes. Thus Yahweh proves to be what has been aptly called ‘the enduring power, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness’ ; and the helpless, the poor, and the humble, not merely in Israel but throughout the world, may look forward to an era of universal righteousness and peace, as the one omnipotent God comes with judicial power to de- stroy the wicked, to justify His Messiah and His Messiah’s people in their responsible mission to the world, and to en- force His beneficent rule upon the earth.

(4

All this, however, is to summarize our conclusions in close adherence to the terminology of the sacred texts. If we would adopt more general terms, we must state them afresh in the following way. In saying ‘Amen’1 to the con- ditions laid down in the Davidic covenant the king be- comes the trustee of Yahweh’s chosen people. Henceforth

Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel ₁₃₇ it is his responsibility to defend the nation from internal corruption and external attack; and success in the latter con- nexion is conditioned by his success in the former. In other words, it is the king’s function to ensure the ‘righteous- ness’ or right relationship within the borders of his territory which will ensure the economic well-being of his people and at the same time will safeguard them from foreign interference. There can be no prosperity and no assurance of continuity for the nation without righteousness; and there can be no righteousness without the fidelity to Yahweh and His laws to which the tribal brotherhood of Israel was pledged under the terms of the Sinaitic covenant.

In the ultimate, therefore, the righteousness of the nation is dependent upon the righteousness of the king. Under the changed conditions of the monarchy it is the king’s devotion and fidelity to Yahweh under the terms of the Davidic covenant which is the basis of the nation’s fidelity and righteousness. Thus the king is in a very real sense the

‘shield’ of his people; and his first care must be the admini- stration of justice, ensuring obedience to tne formal defini- tions of righteousness which are enshrined in Yahweh’s laws and thus maintaining the appropriate balance between the rights and the responsibilities of the individual. It is only in this way that he can ensure the prosperity and the survival of his people, i.e. all that is implied by the Hebrew term for ‘life’ and so makes it possible and indeed necessary to speak of the continuing and abundant life of the social body or, better, its ‘vitality’. Thus, as already indicated, it is the king’s duty to remove the obstacles which impede the way of life within and without the borders of the nation (i.e., in other words, to safeguard the liberty of the indivi- dual and of the state), so that one and all may follow freely the road which leads to economic prosperity.1 Accordingly, while the freedom for which the king longs in his dramatic

I The Hebrew terminology which is normally reproduced as that of

‘salvation’ (i.e. l/Y@ and its derivatives) is first and foremost the language of ‘freedom’ or ‘liberty’. See above, p. 19, n. 2.

K See above, p, 107, n. I.

138 Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel

struggle with the forces of darkness and ‘Death’ is obviously freedom to live and, implicitly, to prosper, it is not a freedom to live altogether in the way of his own choosing or freedom to prosper at the expense of his fellows. It is a freedom to be of service, a freedom to live in accordance with the will of Yahweh and thus to promote, not merely his own personal welfare, but the well-being of the community as a whole, i.e. the well-being of the nation for whom he has accepted responsibility under the terms of the Davidic covenant.

Accordingly, if the argument of these pages is sound, the ritual of the festival which we have been attempting to reconstruct was designed to foster the corporate sense of Israel (i.e. as the tribal brotherhood in covenant relation- ship with Yahweh) by recalling the traditions of Yahweh’s active intervention on their behalf in the field of history and the consequent demands which He made upon those who were so obviously the people of His choice. Under the changed conditions of the monarchy, however, all this was set in the wider context furnished by the thought of Yahweh as the omnipotent, divine King, who is also the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, which appears to have had its roots in the earlier worship of Canaan as represented by the Jebusite cultus in Jerusalem. The implications of Yahweh’s choiceoftheHebrewswerenowunfolded,andthehistoricepi- sodes of the Exodus, the Wandering, and the Settlement were seen in anew light. Yahweh's ultimate purpose was now clear ; it was that of a universal realm of righteousness and peace, in which not merely the twelve tribes of Israel but all the nations of the earth should be united in one common life.

This was Israel’s mission to the world; and the successful direction of that mission had been entrusted to the House of David. The purpose of the Davidic covenant was to ensure righteousness within Israel and thus make righteousness safe for the world. The world was in danger of collapsing into primitive chaos, and it could only be saved from such utter collapse as Israel succeeded in producing the necessary re- sponse to Yahweh’s attempt to create an ordered world.

Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel =39 If there is a robust nationalism here, it is a nationalism which is tempered by a sense of responsibility towards Yah- weh as the one omnipotent God who is ‘the power, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness’ and by a lively concern for the establishment of His Kingdom as an actual fact in the international sphere. If it is a nationalism which may give rise to the dream of a sovereign state, it is also one which foresees the breakdown of national barriers and the establishment of a righteousness which the tribal brother- hood of Israel (with its story of a common ancestry and its emphasis upon a community of blood and soil) may ulti- mately share with all the nations of the earth, as the Creator Himself comes to the aid of His righteous people and so smooths the way for that universal obedience which will ensure the fruits of His beneficent rule for the whole of mankind. Finally (and this is of basic importance), it is also a nationalism which offers no ground for pride, but on the contrary stresses the fact of man’s creaturely dependence upon God. There can be no righteousness where there is no humility; and in this respect Israel, like the king himself, is no more than primus inter pares. When all is said and done, man everywhere must learn to be humble, if he would inherit the earth.

It should be obvious, of course, that what we have in this

dramatic ritual and its attendant mythology is no attempt of

a magical or magico-religious kind to present Yahweh with

a fait accompli, i.e. an opus operaturn which carries with it

the implication that His Hand can be forced, and that He

may be manoeuvred into giving His worshippers the material

blessings which they want. It is, rather, a theory of the

universe, a creative vision of an ultimate purpose for them

and for the world, which discerns an ideal pattern of be-

haviour for mankind and must needs be communicated to

Yahweh’s followers with all the measured symbolism and

moving imagery afforded by splendid architecture, exciting

drama, rousing music, and stirring verse. It is intended to

evoke an awareness of a common life, not only within

‘40 Sacral Kingship in Ancient Israel

Israel but also throughout mankind, and a recognition of the necessity to co-operate for the common good in no nar- row nationalistic sense but with a view to the well-being of society at large. It is designed to arouse in the worshippers and especially in the king a lofty sense of the need to unify society in a common admission of dependence upon and res- ponsibility towards the Creator and thus make possible an entry into that fuller life which He has designed for man- kind. It is only as His rule is acknowledged in the moral realm, or it is only as His will is done on earth as also in heaven, that the full benefit of His creative activity in the realm of nature can become available for mankind, and that His Kingdom may be seen in the fullness of its glory.

In other words, this ritual drama is a summons to convert into actual fact the social ideal which is here depicted in moving symbols culled from all the arts, and its purpose is to give Yahweh’s followers the opportunity to renew their willingness and their power to co-operate for the common good, not only of Israel, but also of all mankind. Thus it is the lively hope of a new world which is brought before the king and his subjects with the coming of a new cycle of the year; and who should sympathize with this point of view more readily than we who know that every new year has its own way of inviting new resolutions or the renewal of old resolutions which have worn thin with the passage of time?

Finally in this connexion, it remains to be said that the ritual and mythology under review thus serve to focus the attention of the worshippers, both the king and his subjects, upon ‘what is unquestionably a cardinal dogma of the cultus, i.e. that it is only the righteous, whether this be the individual or the community, who may be expected to

‘live’ in the full sense which the Hebrew term may imply, and, what is more, that the righteous will ‘live’ in this way in virtue of his fidelity or faithfulness. Nay more, through this dramatic act of worship the king and his people are given the opportunity year by year, not merely to pledge

Samal Kingship in Ancient Israel 141 afresh their devotion and their faithfulness, but also, in renewing their vows, to renew their faith. For, when all is said and done, this ritual drama offers the assurance that, however unequal the struggle may appear, victory is ulti- mately certain if Israel will only prove steadfast. That is to say, its final implication is one which pervades the Old Testament from beginning to end, i.e. the principle that the righteous will ‘live’ (with all that this means or may come to mean), not merely in virtue of his faithfulness, but primarily by reason of his faith.1

Looking still more closely at the worship under discus- sion we see a ritual pattern in which the broadly verifiable data of history are interwoven with an imaginative por- trayal of that which made possible the long pageant of human life and that which is to be its ultimate issue (i.e., in more technical language, a cosmogony and an eschato- logy), both of which clearly belong to the colourful sphere of myth. Accordingly, if there was ever any concentration upon the cycle of the year and the annual revival of the social unit, this has been transcended; and ‘salvation’ has become a matter of the historical process. The purpose of this ritual and its associated mythology is simply to secure what may be described as a ‘frame of mind’,2 the conscious acceptance of a pattern of thought and behaviour which will give direction not only to one’s own life but also to the life of society. Its aim is (a) to reaffirm one’s belief in the principles underlying the behaviour thus envisaged and one’s faith in Yahweh as their author, and (b) to evoke afresh the assent of the will in a renewed pledge of faithfulness to Him and His demands. Accordingly, the memory of Yahweh’s earlier dealings with His people is carefully employed as an aid to present faith and faithfulness; and x

Cf.

The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel,

p.

3, ad init.,

2nd edit., p. v, ad

init.

*

Hebrew: Sk3 nh@?J 73:. Cf. ibid., p. 86, 2nd edit., p. 85.